


Kings of Lucis

by ohmyfae



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, chapter 13 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:14:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8955007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmyfae/pseuds/ohmyfae
Summary: Set at the start of Chapter 13. Noct makes a decision.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short piece featuring what could have happened when Noct put on the ring in chapter 13. Admittedly, I get why this kind of thing wouldn't work in that chapter--better to see all the kings/queens (guess they're all called Kings though?) later, for maximum angst. Still, I thought it would be interesting to see a ring-related scene ala Kingsglaive.

Alone in an enemy fortress, Noctis Lucis Caelum put on his father’s ring.

He’d tried to brace for impact, but nothing his father had told him prepared him for the burst of pain that followed. Noct hunched over his clenched fingers as the very air around him grew heavy and charged with magic, pressing him down as though by an invisible hand. The edges of his vision blurred with spots of red, and the cold room in which he’d hidden away dissolved into a vast distance.

The Kings of Lucis towered over him, their luminous armor giving them angular, inhuman shapes against the dark. The air around them reminded Noct of the ocean in Altissia: The depths beneath extended thin feelers, the inverse of the light of a breaking storm. It gave him an unsteady, boundless feeling, and he struggled not to check if he were truly kneeling on solid ground or floating in infinite space. 

The Kings were watching him. He searched their helmets and visors for the familiar lines of his father’s face, but every one of them looked as alien and cold as the other.

Except… no. There was one who was not quite looking his way. Their head was tilted to the side, and their shoulder shifted as though they were shielding themselves. Noct fought the overpowering pressure that held him down, and struggled to turn towards that King.

“Kings of Lucis,” he said. His throat felt raw. “Lend me your power. For a time.” 

It struck him that not too long ago, his own father must have been here himself, facing down his ancestors to claim the ring as his birthright. Had he looked for Noct’s grandfather among these faceless Kings? Did the force of their power bring him to his knees, like it had Noct, or did he stand and bear their judgment with no doubt in his heart?

I’m not there yet, Noct thought, as his legs trembled and his head strained not to bow. Not with Luna dead, Ignis injured, Prompto gone. Not while the ring burned his hand like a live coal, making his skin crack and bleed. One day, but not yet.

For now, he’d have to settle with what he could get. 

“Please,” he said, to the King that had been his father.

Slowly, the King turned their head. Light bloomed, obscuring all depth and distance, leaving Noct shuddering in a dry wind. He sat up, opened his eyes, and looked around the empty room of the imperial fortress. The ring on his finger glowed with a steady light, and his skin felt like it was on fire. 

This will have to do. 

He rose, nerves straining against the raw power coursing through him, and staggered into the dark.


End file.
